Recent Patch Notes

FEBRUARY 19, 2019

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

New Map – Paris

Paris, an elegant city of art and romance, is the home of our newest Assault map.

Begin your journey at the Cabaret Luna, where the velvety alto voice of preeminent diva Luna charms movie stars, revolutionaries, locals, and tourists alike. After the encore, step outside to see the sights and seize victory. Artisanal shops line the streets as you approach the first point, so duck in to sample a macaron or escape enemy fire. Battle through alleys and corridors before clashing with your foes on the banks of the Seine. Once you establish dominance over your adversaries, make your way to Maison Marat and deliver the coup-de-grâce.

HERO UPDATES

General

Developer Comments: In Overwatch, a health type order determines the prioritization of subtracting health, shield, or armor types when a hero takes damage. For example, if a hero has recoverable shields and takes damage, the damage taken will diminish the recoverable shield before it subtracts from their recoverable health. Previously, it was possible for heroes’ recoverable shields to be prioritized for damage and regeneration, allowing their non-recoverable armor to persist. With the order adjustment, heroes who have been granted non-recoverable armor or shields will now consume those resources before recoverable health, armor, or shields.

Non-recoverable health, shields, and armor are now consumed before recoverable health, shields, and armor

JANUARY 24, 2019

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

New Seasonal Event: Lunar New Year 2019

Get ready to ring in the Year of the Pig!

We’re celebrating the 2019 Lunar New Year with a festive Capture the Flag version of the Busan map, Season 2 of Competitive Capture the Flag, and a load of loot! Unlock new seasonal items, including legendary skins for Huang Zhong Hanzo, Lü Bu Reaper, Guan Yu Reinhardt, Zhang Fei Torbjörn, Hong Gildong Tracer, and Zhuge Liang Zenyatta.

HERO UPDATES

General

Developer Comments: Before this change, armor reduced all incoming damage by up to 5, maxing at half of the normal amount. This change reduces the damage reduction to 3, while still capping at half. This change will be most noticeable for heroes who fire quickly or in bursts, such as shotguns, and do more than 6 damage per shot. For example, Soldier: 76’s Heavy Pulse Rifle will now do 16 damage per shot to armored opponents, up from 14 (an increase close to 15%).

Armor was a bit too strong overall, especially when heroes were being healed quickly and often. This change will help more heroes fight against higher-armored enemies.

Damage reduction from armor reduced from -5 to -3

Brigitte

Developer Comments: Sometimes Rally could cause a snowballing effect, making it too difficult to deal with the increased health of Brigitte’s allies before she built up another one. This change limits how long Rally’s effect lasts after its initial cast, to make it a bit more manageable in those situations.

Rally

Now has a maximum duration of 30 seconds

D.Va

Developer Comments: This change allows D.Va’s enemies to play around her Defense Matrix by increasing its downtime between uses.

Defense Matrix

Cooldown increased from 1 second to 2 seconds

Reaper

Developer Comments Reaper’s passive enables him to play aggressively when near enemies. This change allows him to keep the pressure up while he’s dishing damage to his enemies. The added life steal is particularly effective against tanks, as they tend to do less damage than other heroes, and also take more damage from his Hellfire Shotguns due to their larger hit volumes.

The Reaping

Life steal increased from 30% to 50% of damage dealt

BUG FIXES

Heroes

General

[PS4/XB1] Fixed a bug that caused a delay for heroes loading into the victory screen line up if they had a golden weapon equipped

McCree

[PS4/XB1] Fixed a bug that caused McCree's model to distort if he used Combat Roll to the right with the Sherlock skin equipped

Tracer

Fixed a bug that caused Tracer’s Pulse Bomb to detonate on the wrong side of Orisa’s Protective Barrier when it was placed on the front

Wrecking Ball

Fixed a bug that prevented Wrecking Ball’s proximity mines from being disabled by Sombra’s EMP

BUG FIXES

Fixed a bug that prevented the title text for Ana’s Bastet Challenge from displaying

Heroes

McCree

Fixed a bug that caused McCree’s model to distort if he used Combat Roll to the right with the Sherlock skin equipped

January 8, 2019

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

Ana’s Bastet Challenge

We’re bringing Ana's journey in the short story “Bastet” to Overwatch with some special, unlockable in-game content. Wins in Quick Play, Competitive Play, or Arcade will all earn you a limited-time player icon, victory pose, and a new epic skin: BASTET ANA!

Tune in to participating Twitch broadcasters while they’re playing Overwatch anytime through January 21 to earn five Ana's Bastet Challenge sprays!

GAME BROWSER AND CUSTOM GAME UPDATES

An option to toggle an over-the-shoulder spectator camera is now available. This feature can be found under Options > Gameplay > Use Simple 3P Spectator Camera

An option to mute voice lines while spectating is now available. This feature can be found under Options > Gameplay > Enable Voice Lines While Spectating

Developer Comments: These quality of life changes mirror some of the functionality available to professional broadcasters. By bringing these features in-game, we aim to provide players with a seamless spectator experience between streamed professional play and in-game matches with their peers.

USER INTERFACE UPDATES

General

Removed the “Unlock All” option in the Hero Gallery

BUG FIXES

Heroes

Ashe

Fixed a bug that caused Ashe’s scoped view to stutter when playing with a high framerate

Brigitte

Fixed a bug that caused Brigitte to pivot when exiting third-person view after lowering her Barrier Shield

Reinhardt

Fixed a bug that caused Reinhardt’s Earthshatter to not be visible to other players if he used it while recovering from a stun

Fixed a bug that caused Reinhardt to pivot when exiting third-person view after lowering his Barrier Field

Torbjörn

Fixed a bug that caused Torbjörn’s turret to be built at an extreme angle if it landed on the edge of an object

Winston

Fixed a bug that prevented Winston from dealing damage when landing at the maximum range of Jump Pack

Arcade

Maps

Fixed a bug that allowed players to stand on the chimney above the attacker’s initial spawn room

Busan

Fixed a bug that prevented the blast shields from moving in MEKA Base while in a skirmish match

Hollywood

Fixed a bug that caused the railing above the first objective to block projectiles after being destroyed

King's Row

Fixed a bug that allowed players to stand on top of the sign for Moriarty’s Fine Books behind the first objective

DECEMBER 11, 2018

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

New Seasonal Event: Winter Wonderland 2018

‘Tis the season to get merry!

Overwatch is getting into the holiday spirit for the next three weeks! Expand your collection and enjoy two winter brawls: Yeti Hunter and Mei’s Snowball Offensive. Visit Blizzard World to watch the snow fall, admire its twinkling nighttime lights, and savor the sight of confectionary-inspired décor.

Of course, we have new presents for you to unwrap from our Winter Loot Boxes! Unlock new seasonal items—including legendary skins like Krampus Junkrat, Sugar Plum Fairy Mercy, Figure Skater Symmetra, and more.

GENERAL UPDATES

Audio

Developer Comments: Since launch, we’ve supported Dolby Atmos for players who use headphones, and we’re now expanding this support to include the Windows 10 implementation for spatial audio. Spatial audio is configured in the Windows 10 sound settings and will take priority over the settings in the game client. This will allow for more options, including settings for Windows Sonic Headphones, Dolby Atmos for Headphones, and Dolby Atmos for Home Theater.

[PC] An option to use Windows Spatial Audio is now available. This feature can be found in the Windows Start Menu under Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Sound > Speaker Device > Spatial Sound

Ashe

Developer Comments Our final technical audit on Ashe’s character package allowed us to implement a feature we talked about several times during Bob’s production. Making him part of Ashe’s golden weapon is a great way to celebrate our favorite Big Omnic Butler and let players show off their hard-earned Competitive Points each time they summon him onto the battlefield.

B.O.B.

Bob will now have a golden tint when Ashe equips her golden weapon

Bastion

Developer Comments: Bastion could use a little bit of an offensive boost to balance out how vulnerable Configuration: Recon’s bulky size and Sentry’s stationary nature make it. As a reward for surviving in spite of these weaknesses, we gave Bastion a lower spread in Sentry mode to make it more effective at farther ranges than it was previously.

Configuration: Recon

Ammo increased from 25 to 35

Configuration: Sentry

Weapon spread decreased by up to 33% while firing

Brigitte

Developer Comments: Brigitte’s Shield Bash is a strong ability that often feels difficult to counter. This change will offer new options for counter play, enabling shield tanks to better protect themselves and their teammates. Reducing its damage reduces her total stun combo damage potential while still allowing Whip Shot and her basic melee attacks to retain their full strength. Brigitte is a tank/healer hybrid, and lately we’ve been reducing her effectiveness by lowering the power of her non-healing functionality. We want to make sure she is still a viable pick, so we’re increasing the uptime of her Inspire passive ability to help improve her overall healing output.

Shield Bash

No longer can travel or stun targets through barriers

Damage reduced from 50 to 5

Inspire

Cooldown reduced from 1.5 seconds to 1 second

Duration increased from 5 seconds to 6 seconds

Total healing increased from 80 to 100

Doomfist

Developer Comments Doomfist’s high mobility allows him to engage and disengage from extremely long range. Decreasing the range of the targeted aerial version of Seismic Slam requires him to get closer before engaging an enemy and makes it slightly harder for him to escape from combat. The loss of air control on Rising Uppercut was a frustrating mechanic for players, but it allowed Doomfist to set up combos. We’ve found a decent middle ground by limiting the amount of time Doomfist has to line up his next move. The Meteor Strike changes will make it harder to secure easy eliminations on heroes without mobility abilities, such as Zenyatta or Ana, while still preserving its maximum potential damage when aimed well or when combined with other abilities such as Graviton Surge or Sleep Dart.

Rising Uppercut

Loss of air control duration lowered from 3 seconds to 0.6 seconds

Seismic Slam

Maximum range reduced from 20 meters to 15 meters

Targets no longer lose air control while being pulled in

Meteor Strike

Inner ring damage radius increased from 1.5 meters to 2.0 meters

Outer ring maximum damage decreased from 300 to 200

McCree

Developer Comments McCree’s Fan the Hammer wasn’t as reliable against higher health heroes as it should be. Increasing its damage will make it more potent in close-range engagements where it is intended to be most effective.

Peacekeeper

Alternate fire damage increased from 45 to 55

Soldier: 76

Developer Comments The intent of Tactical Visor is to make Soldier: 76 unable to miss during its duration. However, Helix Rockets have travel time, so if they were fired directly at an enemy after locking on they would often miss a moving target at further ranges. This change allows players to freely aim Helix Rockets while still auto-aiming his primary fire.

Tactical Visor

No longer makes Helix Rockets lock onto enemies

Torbjörn

Developer Comments While the Molten Core damage pools were intended to provide players with tools for area denial, they weren’t proving threatening enough to deter enemies for a significant amount of time because their damage was too low.

Molten Core

Damage increased from 130 to 160 per second

BUG FIXES

A.I.

Fixed a bug that caused the Torbjörn bot to use some of his ultimate while attempting to repair his turret

Deathmatch

Fixed a bug that caused Athena’s voice lines to overlap if the match was a draw

Heroes

General

Fixed a bug that prevented a landing exertion visual effect from playing when a hero impacted a slippery surface before landing

Fixed an issue that caused enemy players to appear to have jittery movement at framerates over 100

Fixed issues that could cause the client to miscalculate projectiles

Ashe

Fixed a bug that caused Ashe’s Dynamite to create a second small explosion visual effect a few moments after the first explosion

Hero Gallery

Fixed a bug that caused heroes to display a t-pose briefly when viewing Highlight Intros with the UI disabled

Maps

Control

Fixed a bug that caused the hero select countdown timer to remain at 29 seconds

Dorado

Fixed a bug that gave unintended access to certain ledges

Hollywood

Fixed a bug that caused the ground beneath the western soundstage's gates to be slippery while the gates were open

Temple of Anubis

Fixed a bug that prevented players from standing on the staircase ledge near the first point

Fixed a bug that allowed Sombra to reach unintended locations

Mystery Heroes

Fixed a bug that prevented the Mystery Heroes ruleset from being used while in a Mystery Heroes skirmish

Spectating

Fixed a bug that caused the kill feed to overlap with other UI elements while spectating players

UI

Colorblind Options

Fixed a bug that caused a player’s UI to appear as the enemy color during FFA Deathmatch games

Fixed a bug that prevented colorblind set team colors from appearing on the tab and victory screens

Fixed a bug that prevented player name plates from appearing in the hero select screen

Fixed a bug that prevented the end of round score screen from properly displaying team colors

Fixed a bug that prevented enemy Torbjörn’s turret health bar from displaying its team color

NOVEMBER 13, 2018

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

New Hero: Ashe (Damage):

Ashe’s arsenal of weapons makes her a versatile offensive hero, capable of setting up the perfect situation to shoot down dangerous enemies from range or deal high area-of-effect burst damage to groups of heroes.

Her primary weapon is the Viper, a lever-action rifle with two firing modes: semi-automatic and aim down sights. In semi-automatic mode, the Viper shoots rapidly with a high spread. Aiming down the sights lets Ashe line up precise shots, increasing damage at the expense of speed.

She can turn any situation into her favor with her Coach Gun a short-range, high-impact sidearm that deals big damage and clears the way by knocking back nearby enemies. It can also be used to knock herself back for added mobility, either to reposition herself for a clear shot, or to escape pursuing enemies.

Ashe’s Dynamite ability is a thrown explosive that detonates after a delay. It deals damage in a wide radius and sets enemies on fire for additional damage over time. She can also shoot the dynamite to detonate it early, allowing her to damage unsuspecting enemies.

Her ultimate ability, B.O.B., sends Ashe’s loyal omnic companion rushing into the fray, shoving aside the frontline to rough up targets in the backline.

As with all new heroes, please note that Ashe's release in Competitive Play will be delayed by two weeks.

HERO UPDATES

General

Made jump height consistent across hero roster

Mercy

Developer Comments Mercy's ultimate was charging a bit too slowly after her base healing was reduced in a previous update. These changes should restore some of her ultimate’s strength and let it build up more quickly.

Valkyrie

Ultimate cost reduced 15%

Healing per second increased from 50 to 60

Reaper

Developer Comments: Reaper's specialty is fighting at a very close range. The more consistent spread pattern and increase in healing from his passive ability will make him more capable of standing toe-to-toe with his enemies.

Hellfire Shotguns

Spread randomization reduced by 50%

Spread pattern adjusted

The Reaping

Life steal increased from 20% to 30% of damage dealt

Roadhog

Developer Comments: Roadhog is receiving several large changes to make his abilities more consistent. His Chain Hook had issues with breaking when enemy targets jumped or fell behind environment collision. It will now slow them down in the air more when the hook lands, and wait less time before it starts reeling them in. Since Chain Hook’s cooldown now begins immediately upon use, it no longer varies based on Roadhog’s distance to the hook target. We’ve also moved some of the projectiles closer to the center of the spread pattern on his Scrap Gun, which gives him a more consistent damage output for its primary and alternate fire. Previously, there was a long-standing bug that caused close-range targets to fly much further than expected. After this bug was fixed, we still wanted to keep some of the knockback burst it provided, so we’ve increased the overall velocity cap to maintain some of that functionality.

Chain Hook

Decreased the delay before pulling a hooked target from 0.5 seconds to 0.3 seconds

Now greatly reduces the target’s momentum upon being hooked

Cooldown now begins immediately, instead of after the target has been pulled

Scrap Gun

Spread pattern adjusted for both primary and secondary fire

Spread randomization reduced by 50%

Whole Hog

Symmetra

Developer Comments It's still difficult to use Symmetra's Photon Projector beam effectively, even after its range was increased. By speeding up the primary fire charge rate, it takes less time to ramp up to its full damage potential and will be a stronger option when she’s presented with targets to charge up on.

Photon Projector

Primary fire beam charges up 20% faster

MAP UPDATES

General

Reduced the setup timer for Assault, Escort, and Assault/Escort maps from 1 minute to 45 seconds

Assemble Your Team timer increased from 10 to 25 seconds in the second round on Assault, Assault/Escort, and Escort maps

USER INTERFACE UPDATES

General

Removed the “Unlock All” option in the Hero Gallery

BUG FIXES

A.I.

Fixed a bug that caused Mei bots to attempt landing headshots on Wrecking Ball while he was immune to them in Roll mode

Fixed a bug that caused bots to get stuck near Point A on Eichenwalde

Heroes

Brigitte

Fixed a bug that prevented Brigitte’s Whip Shot from going on cooldown if it was interrupted before the chain retracted

Doomfist

Fixed a bug that prevented victims of Doomfist’s Rocket Punch from ragdolling if they were eliminated by it